Teaching English in Taiwan-Hess Review

Accepting an offer of employment from Hess Language School

Accepting an offer of employment from Hess Language School to teach English in Taiwan; the offer of employment from Hess can make you feel rather secure about putting up all that money and travelling to Taiwan for Hess’s training programme, but it is very important to bear in mind that candidates only have a prospect of gaining employment with Hess at the end of training.

The offer of employment is dependant on successfully passing training. Hess training is more akin to a selection process, or a nine day job interview, coupled with assessments and testing throughout. To actually be employed by Hess, as an English language teacher in Taiwan, a candidate must successfully pass this.

Training is, in my view, conducted very rapidly, one could speculate, to minimise cost. A major problem for trainees is that assessed practical demonstrations are given with only very limited and arguably inadequate amounts of time for adequate preparation. Demonstrations must be carried out in accordance with the Hess curriculum and Hess teaching style, which the trainers go through rapidly. There are also daily tests and a final exam at the end of training to contend with.

If you are not adept at public speaking you will most likely struggle with training, as you will be required to use Hess teaching methods to teach from the Hess curriculum, in front of assessors and your classmates, throughout training.

I am aware of a trainee who was told by Hess’s Head Trainer that his demonstrations were average, after only his third ever attempt at one in his life, and that as a consequence he would not be offered a contract with Hess; this was despite Hess being fully aware that he had never before taught English when they made him the offer of employment in the first place. In this persons case he had travelled from the other side of the world to take up Hess’s offer of employment. If your scores are, likewise, rather average you can expect to be similarly removed from training, and refused a position with Hess.

If you wish to teach English in Taiwan, and you are looking for employment before you get there, I recommend finding another alternative. I would additionally recommend that if you do decide to go, be prepared to find work once you get there. Also, check out this website it may help: tealit (dot) com.